Battle of Kircholm

The Battle of Kircholm was a major battle of the Polish-Swedish Wars which occurred on 27 September 1605. A Polish army a third the size of King Charles IX of Sweden's army decisively defeated the Swedes in 20 minutes an embarrassing setback for Sweden.

Battle
On 27 September 1605, King Charles IX of Sweden's 10,868-strong army, which included a few thousand German and Dutch mercenaries and a few hundred Scots, met a numerically-inferior Polish army of 3,600 troops under Jan Karol Chodkiewicz near present-day Salaspils in Latvia. The Polish Winged Hussars launched a devastating charge against the inferior and tired Swedish cavalry, disordering the third Swedish line of infantry in their retreat. Within 30 minutes, the Swedish army was in full retreat as it was enveloped, and 8,000 of its soldiers were killed, captured, or dispersed in a humiliating defeat.